Though once a Hobbit, Gollum’s 500 years in possession of the Ring
has deformed his body and warped his mind. When he is caught tracking
them by Frodo and Sam, Gollum offers to guide the hobbits through the
craggy hills of Emyn Muil into Mordor if they will release him. “When
Frodo meets Gollum, Frodo sees a lot of himself in the creature,” notes
Andy, who provides the voice, the movement, and, through his work with
WETA Digital, the essence of Gollum. “He senses that his journey can’t
continue without Gollum.”

Gollum cooperates, if only to be near his “Precious” long enough to
steal it back. But because he shares the quality of Ringbearer with
Frodo, the Hobbit coaxes out of him the story of what Gollum once was –
a “Stoor Hobbit” named Smeagol who gained possession of The Ring through
an act of violence. “When Frodo gets him to confess who he was, he
begins to remember what he was like before The Ring came into his life,”
explains Andy.

For Frodo, being near Gollum is like looking into a dark mirror. “It’s
like seeing someone with a terminal disease that Frodo himself is in the
early stages of,” Andy explains.

Once re-awakened, Smeagol begins to unburden himself of Gollum and
his connection with Frodo drives a rift between Frodo and Sam.
“Gollum joining them brings about a lot of change within Frodo and
Sam,” Wood continues. “Their friendship is tested as Frodo relies
more on The Ring and is changed by its power over the course of the
journey. Sam has to take more responsibility to see Frodo through
because Frodo is starting to lose his own sensibilities, his purity,
and his way.”

Because of Gollum’s crucial role in the journey of Frodo and Sam toward
their destination where the Ring must be destroyed, Jackson was
determined that the character must be entirely authentic, a presence
that would carry as much reality and emotional weight as a live actor.
“The character of Gollum is a completely digital creature, but I was
determined that I wanted an actor to actually create the character,
which in this case is Andy Serkis,” says Jackson.

For post-production, Andy wore a motion-cap suit

The collaboration between creative teams and Andy has resulted in the
first character of his kind -- an entirely performance-based digital
creation that “acts” as much as any actor in the film.

As Jackson and Oscar-winning director of photographer Andrew Lesnie
supervised actor Andy Serkis’s performance on set, the animators at WETA
Digital studied the resulting performance to remake it digitally, using
his movements and facial expressions to animate the Gollum that would
ultimately “act” in the scene. “I am so in awe of the skill, effort and
technical wizardry of the rotoartists,” says Andy. “The skill of the
animators to bring this off, and have such passion for it, is quite
staggering.”

His body and voice design was then taken further into an animated world
through motion capture photography, computer generated imagery and digital sound
mixing. The resulting synthesis is a totally new visual effect. ”Obviously, Andy
creates the character through the voice,” explains Jackson. “But also, we’re
doing a lot of Gollum as motion capture, which is when Andy wears a suit covered
in these little dots, and he performs Gollum. He says the dialog, he plays the
scenes out just as he would, and the computer is able to capture his movement,
and translate that to the digital version of Gollum.”

Gollum’s famous voice, one of the most memorable elements of both
Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, became Andy’s
touchstone and key to the character. “I had an emotional root to that
sound,” he says. “For me, it is where his pain is trapped. That
emotional memory is trapped in that part of his body, his throat. In
just doing the voice, I immediately got into the physicality of Gollum,
and embodied the part as I would if I were playing it for real.”

His performance was so strong as Gollum that the initial digital
character has evolved throughout the production to be more like the
actor. “Gollum is probably the most actor-driven digital creature
that has ever been used in a film before,” Jackson adds.

Andy
Serkis plays "Gollum" in Peter Jackson's trilogy The Lord of the
Rings.

Andy Serkis and Eric Sainden

Starting with sketches by conceptual artists Howe and Lee along with
the art, Jackson’s vision for Gollum was ultimately sculpted into a
plasticene maquette which was then scanned into the computer. “There
are around 300 different muscles or more on Gollum,” says creature
supervisor Eric Sainden. “He has a full skeleton and a full muscle
system that’s all driving what you see on his skin. One of Gollum’s
greatest challenges is his face. He has to act with the other
actors. The facial system we’re doing has about 250 different face
shapes that we’re working in between.”

Over the 18 months of principal photography, Andy was filmed for every
scene in which Gollum appears